Dynamically edit config/database.php file in Laravel

Question

First time when user runs my application i want to set database details as entered by the user in my application.

Please let me know how i can edit config/database.php f

Answer 1

If you want to set the database connection dynamically for just one request you can also use the following option.

Config::set('database.connections.local.host', '<New Host IP>');
Config::set('database.connections.local.database', '<New DB>');
Config::set('database.connections.local.username', '<New Username>');
Config::set('database.connections.local.password', '<New Password>');

Your DB config can looks like this in that case, or just provide default connection information and override it via the above commands.

'connections' => array(
    'local' => array(
        'driver'    => 'mysql',
        'host'      => '',
        'database'  => '',
        'username'  => '',
        'password'  => '',
        'charset'   => 'utf8',
        'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_cli',
        'prefix'    => '',
     ),
),

Answer 2

The simplest solution is probably to use placeholders in the initial config file:

'mysql' => array(
    'driver'    => 'mysql',
    'host'      => '%host%',
    'database'  => '%database%',
    'username'  => '%username%',
    'password'  => '%password%',
    'charset'   => 'utf8',
    'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    'prefix'    => '',
),

And then just replace them with the actual values:

$path = app_path('config/database.php');
$contents = File::get($path);

$contents .= str_replace('%host%', $host, $contents);
// and so on

File::put($path, $contents);

This way you don't have to actually parse the file.

You might also want to use some kind of default database.php.dist and create the actual database.php when filling in the values. This way you could always repeat the set up process by using the original .dist file.

Answer 3

There's no built-in functionality to do what you want here. However, I have done a similar thing myself and I just load the file in, do a string replacement operation and then write it back out. This, by the way, is the way that laravel's own 'set application key' command works, so at least we aren't missing any undocumented functionality!

Something like this, in your command's fire method:

$dialog = $this->getHelperSet()->get('dialog');

$host = $dialog->ask($this->output, '<question>Hostname?</question> ');
$db   = $dialog->ask($this->output, '<question>Database?</question> ');
$user = $dialog->ask($this->output, '<question>Username?</question> ');
$pass = $dialog->ask($this->output, '<question>Password?</question> ');

if ($file = file_get_contents(app_path('config/database.php')) {
    $file = str_replace("'host'      => '*********'", "'host'      => '".$host."'", $file);
    $file = str_replace("'database'  => '********'", "'database'  => '".$db."'", $file);
    $file = str_replace("'username'  => '********'", "'username'  => '".$user."'", $file);
    $file = str_replace("'password'  => '*******'", "'password'  => '".$pass."'", $file);

    file_put_contents(app_path('config.database.php'));
}